I was so psyched during the final assault on Windhelm. I wanted Ulfric's head on a pike. I had stacked up on potions and enchantments, brought my best gear to single handedly duel Ulfric Stormcloak, the Killer of Kings, the man who had "shouted High King Torygg to pieces", the man who had escaped the dragon attack on Helgen.

What did I get? A battle through Windhelm one-shotting guards with my bow, and then an empty Hall in the Palace of Kings with just Ulfric and his lapdog guarding him, and me and Rikke and the Imperial commander exchanging some words with him.

A brief battle, then Ulfric falls down on one knee and is executed shortly thereafter. Done.

...really?

I had expected me and him to be exchanging lengthy shout duels on some frozen peak or something with lighting and thunder clapping all around us god damn what a letdown.

What else there is to say? Bethesda made a beautiful world with a bunch of good plots and interesting questlines...

... and then left them unfinished. Modders have been picking their pieces ever since, but while Civil War has been overhauled, the ending is the lame old BGS BS.

Don't get me wrong: I like Dawnguard and Dragonborn, but BGS could have spent portion of their energy to fill gaps they left in with that ridicullous 11.11.11 release date that nobady else cared about.

I was so psyched during the final assault on Windhelm. I wanted Ulfric's head on a pike. I had stacked up on potions and enchantments, brought my best gear to single handedly duel Ulfric Stormcloak, the Killer of Kings, the man who had "shouted High King Torygg to pieces", the man who had escaped the dragon attack on Helgen.

What did I get? A battle through Windhelm one-shotting guards with my bow, and then an empty Hall in the Palace of Kings with just Ulfric and his lapdog guarding him, and me and Rikke and the Imperial commander exchanging some words with him.

A brief battle, then Ulfric falls down on one knee and is executed shortly thereafter. Done.

...really?

I had expected me and him to be exchanging lengthy shout duels on some frozen peak or something with lighting and thunder clapping all around us god damn what a letdown.

He wouldn't last a second in a shout duel, he only knows one shout. Also Ulfric is not a fighter, he is too cowardly to fight by himself, so he makes his brainwashed minions fight for him.

@ Imisna"Thalmor lapdog? Ulfric is the one helping the thalmor defeat the empire. If he had just shut up and waited, the empire would gain strength and eventually drive the thalmor away."

Kept his mouth shut? The Empire is allowing it's arch-enemy to torture and/or kill it's own citizens aka people they are sworn to protect. You can"t expect people to just sit silently in the face of direct betrayal.

@ Imisna"Thalmor lapdog? Ulfric is the one helping the thalmor defeat the empire. If he had just shut up and waited, the empire would gain strength and eventually drive the thalmor away."

Kept his mouth shut? The Empire is allowing it's arch-enemy to torture and/or kill it's own citizens aka people they are sworn to protect. You can expect people to just sit silently in the face of direct betrayal.

The Thalmor only began torturing and killing when Ulfric started to ♥♥♥♥♥ about the Talos worship ban, dispite the fact that it wasn't even enforced until he made it public.

Additionally, Talos founded the empire, and the empire is his legacy. The stormcloaks hypocritically attempt to destroy the legacy of Talos in the name of Talos.

True that, and it's something I never did manage to get my head around so - I join the Imperials on the odd occasion I actually do bother with the whole Civil War thing.... I religiously kill as many Thalmor as I can though, regardless.... :-)

That's what you deserve for being a Thalmor lapdog though it's equally boring the Stormcloak route. Sadly, most questlines end this way; Alduin is a pushover as is Harkon in the Dawnguard expansion.

Thalmor lapdog? Ulfric is the one helping the thalmor defeat the empire. If he had just shut up and waited, the empire would gain strength and eventually drive the thalmor away.

Yes and no.

Empire and Titus are definetly not Thalmor lapdogs. The Great War started, when emire refused to outlaw Talos worship and went to war against dominion. It ended, when Titus realized that they could not win the war.

After victorious campain in capital city,Titus opened negotiations, when Dominion was not in direct position to dictate the rules of surrender.

Thalmor isn't going anywhere, but they didn't have any imortant business in Skyrim, before Ulfric was released (by Thalmor) to wage civil war in Skyrim.

@ Imisna"Thalmor lapdog? Ulfric is the one helping the thalmor defeat the empire. If he had just shut up and waited, the empire would gain strength and eventually drive the thalmor away."

Kept his mouth shut? The Empire is allowing it's arch-enemy to torture and/or kill it's own citizens aka people they are sworn to protect. You can"t expect people to just sit silently in the face of direct betrayal.

Lore tells another story for this as well:

Ulfric went war against native Bretons of Reach. Instead of uniting peoples (that he wishes to claim as his own) he instead ordered his nords to brutally torture and murder them. Survivors were driven to mountains, where they fought back in Forsworn ranks.